Bob/ENTS- Now I know that some of us on the forum are low tech Luddites and proud of it, but for those who have selected iPhones for their cellular phone use, you may be interested in a new application for iPhones.
About a month ago I was paging through the hundreds of applications for the iPhone when I ran across CLINOMETER. At that time, it cost me ninety-nine cents (and who is the person responsible for removing the "cent" symbol from our keyboards?!?!) to download the 'app' to the iPhone, I understand it's now free. How does it work? Select the Clinometer ikon button from the main menu, and a view not unlike the clinometer flashes to the screen (if you happened to be holding it horizontal, say on a table, it turns into a 'bubble level'). There are two control 'touch spots', one a locking mechanism, the other with an "i" (information?) that provides controls on display and action. It's a little awkward to operate the 'touch spot' without having a tactile texture, but after several uses, the proximity is reasonably easy to locate. Accuracy? Mine is enclosed in a clear plastic case, and I've carefully filed two triangular "V's" to serve as "gun sights". This allows for surprisingly accurate and precise angular measure (currently only offered in degree scale, but I'd guess that the app designer would be only too happy to create a 'percent scale' for those wishing it). Intended utility? I'm currently using it for measuring heights of prospective champion trees for Alaska. Reviews by other users? My nephew is an Air Force captain serving as a pilot for C-180 cargo planes in Iraq...they have duct-taped the iPhone to the C-180 dashboard, and found it to have better "action" than the original military guage, and as accurate. Bottom line for me, I'd already purchased the iPhone, the application was certainly worth the 'dollar download'! -Don Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 18:55:21 +0000 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] More on the 550 ENTS, This morning I did some tests on the 550's ability to shoot through clutter relative to the tried and proven Prostaff 440. The table below shows shots through a little clutter in the first 8 trials and considerable clutter in the last 7. The R in the last column means I had to repeatedly shoot the target with the 550 to get the longest return comparable to the 440. The 440 is still the superior instrument when it comes to cutting through clutter. In conducting the tests, I used the 550 on single point mode to make the comparison. The single point mode allows me to repeatedly shoot the target and test for higher points. The double point mode locks in on what it sees as the target and requires the user to shoot the bottom of the tree to complete the full height routine. It then returns you to the point where you can shoot the crown again. This means you cana just point to the crown and shoot, point to the base and shoot and be confident that the retured height is based on the highest point. You have to probe for the highest point when clutter is in the way. My judgement is that the 550 is a very good and useful instrument, but in the hands of novice, lots of trees will be mismeasured. You have to work harder in clutter to get a reliable result. 440 550 180 181 91.5 91 115.5 115 124.5 127 R 120 120 142.5 144 R 129 128 117 116 130.5 132 R 139 139 R 84 84 R 114 114 R 141 140 R 141 144 R 63 64 R Bob _________________________________________________________________ Rediscover Hotmail®: Now available on your iPhone or BlackBerry http://windowslive.com/RediscoverHotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Rediscover_Mobile1_042009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
